Sixth Sense (A Psychic Crystal Mystery) (10 page)

“I don’t have any of the details. I just—I know—I knew your parents, and that’s why I called you.”

Of course. The trauma wing at the hospital was named after her parents. She’d attended the dedication. Her parents were personal friends with many of the physicians. She was sure the hospital had taken the best care of them. It was undoubtedly out of the scope of their job to call the next of kin. They were doing her a favor.

Were her parents lying on cold slabs in the Tyler and Jessica Crystal Trauma Center, waiting to be transferred to the hospital morgue? How had the accident happened? Had it been raining? They’d driven to the lake hundreds of times since she was a girl. Her father was a cautious driver. The route was mapped in his brain. He could have driven it on autopilot.

Katherine shivered and pulled the robe tighter around her.
“Is there someone you’d like me to call?”
The doctor’s words jumbled in her mind.
Car crash, explosion. Police. Jack.

Jack
. When she hung up with the doctor, she called Jack’s cell phone. She’d programmed his number into her phone in Sydney.
Please, let him be home
.

“Jack Hale.” His voice sounded hoarse and faraway, like it was coming from the bottom of a bottle. She’d obviously woken him up from a jetlagged sleep.

“Jack, it’s Katherine.” Her chest heaved and a soft cry escaped her lips.

“Kate?” he asked, sounding more alert.

Tears streamed down her face. She was frozen, unable to go on.

“Kate, are you still there? Did you get another flash?”

“Nothing,” she whispered. “No warning. I didn’t feel anything.”

“What’s wrong? I don’t like the way you sound.”

“Jack,” she whispered, clutching the phone, afraid to release the words into the atmosphere. If she didn’t say them out loud, maybe the whole thing would be some horrible nightmare. Maybe she just needed more time to process what was happening. Maybe things would go back to the way they were before she got the call, before she got home, before her parents had left the cabin.

But this wasn’t someone else’s nightmare. It was hers, and she had to face it. But she didn’t want to face it alone. “It’s my parents. There’s been an accident. They didn’t make it. But I think it’s a mistake. I’m their daughter. I would know if something was wrong, right? I mean, I would feel it. I know I would.”

Jack’s voice broke in. “Where are you now?”

Kate looked around her room, feeling as if her body were detached from her mind. “At home, of course.” She leaped out of bed and started rummaging through her drawers. “Can you pick me up and take me to Midtown Memorial? I’m sorry to bother you, but I didn’t know who else to call.”

“Just wait. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” The phone line clicked off.

Katherine hung up the phone. She had to get to the closet, pick out something to wear. Jack would be here soon. But her legs felt rigid, like they were stuck in cement.

She needed to be downstairs to let Jack in. Still numb, she managed to step into a pair of blue jeans and a sweater. Shoes and socks. Slow and easy. One foot at a time.

She tried to remember the last thing she’d said to her mother. They had been arguing about the trip to Australia.

“You can talk to the police from Atlanta,” she’d said. “There’s no need to go all the way to Sydney.”

“But Mom, I have to go. Those girls need me.”

“It will be dangerous.” Her mother’s usually laughing lips had pursed into a slash of disapproval. Jessica Crystal was a first-rate trial lawyer. Katherine rarely won an argument with her mother.

“I’ll be accompanied by a detective and surrounded by police,” she had countered.

“Your name is all over the papers, dear.” She’d patted Kate’s hand. “That man knows you’re going to be there. What’s to stop him from getting to you before you help the police get to him?”

Katherine hadn’t thought of that. Hadn’t been worried about herself. All she could see were pictures of dead bodies in her head. Young girls, helpless, the strangler’s hands around their throats, squeezing the last ounce of life out of them. She didn’t have a choice. She had to go.

“Promise me you’ll be careful,” her mother had said, finally.

Why had it happened? Her parents had gone to the lake to avoid publicity, publicity she had generated. It was all her fault they were dead. And why hadn’t she warned them? She could flash on the future of a perfect stranger, but she couldn’t even save her own parents.

The doctor had said the police were on the scene. Did they suspect foul play? It wasn’t uncommon for judges to be targeted.

Katherine heard a loud knock on the door and jumped.

“Kate,” Jack bellowed. “Kate, are you in there?”

Kate forced herself to walk downstairs to the front door and unlock it. “Jack, you’re here,” she said, feeling faint, trying hard to focus on his face before everything went black.

Jack had imagined Kate in his arms dozens of times in the last two weeks, just not like this. He had made a call to the station before he arrived, inquiring into the accident. Apparently, the accident was under investigation. All eyes were on it. When an accident involved a federal judge, the department wasn’t taking any chances. They’d even called in the FBI.

Jack lifted Katherine up, saw the key in the door, and locked it behind them. He gently deposited her in his car and put the seat belt around her. God, she was tiny and vulnerable and light as a feather. Then he got into the driver’s seat and took off for the hospital, using his emergency siren.

Katherine was obviously in shock. Getting her checked out was his first priority.

He pulled up to the emergency entrance, handed his keys to the valet, and went around to the passenger side of the car.

“Kate,” he nudged her gently. “We’re here. We’re at the hospital.”

She stirred. “Jack.” She looked up at him but didn’t move.

“I’m here, sweetheart.” He lifted her and walked into the hospital and over to the ER desk clerk. “I’m Detective Jack Hale. This woman is in shock. She needs to be examined.”

The woman handed him some forms, and he grimaced.

“I don’t have time to fill out any damn forms. Didn’t I make myself clear? This woman needs to see a doctor. Now.”

“Sir, I realize you’re upset, but we have our rules.”

“Fuck your rules. Find me a doctor, right now.”

“If you don’t calm down, sir, I’m going to have to call the police.”

Jack bared his teeth and growled at the receptionist. “I
am
the police. I’m here about the two dead bodies.”

The receptionist’s mouth opened and her eyes widened in alarm. “Two dead bodies?”

Jack eyed her menacingly. “And if you don’t get me a doctor right this minute, there’s going to be a third,” Jack threatened. He looked down at Kate in alarm. God, she wasn’t moving, and she was so pale. Was she even breathing? What if—? He couldn’t let anything happen to her. He hadn’t known her for very long, but he didn’t understand until this very minute how important she had become to him.

Chapter Ten

Jack took Kate’s hand and helped her out of the emergency room bed.

The doctor had given Kate the okay to leave. She had been in shock, and he’d instructed her to go home and rest. But Jack knew she wasn’t going to be able to rest, given the fresh nightmare of her parents’ death.

She was going to need him now, and he would be there for her. “Kate, honey, I know you’re still in shock. This is very difficult, but I will be with you every step of the way.”

Kate squeezed her eyes shut and tears spilled out of the corners, soft sobs overtaking her.

Jack remembered when he had seen his father’s body in the coffin at the visitation. He had been only ten at the time. But he didn’t imagine the hurt got any easier with age. And he still had his mother. To lose both parents at once must be unbearable. He ached for Kate.

He pulled her into his arms and let her cry. After a few minutes, she pulled away and wiped her nose with a tissue she pulled from her purse.

“Sorry,” she whispered, her eyes avoiding his. She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “Thanks.”

“I’m glad you called,” he replied, putting his arm around her shoulder. “If you’re not ready to see...” He swallowed the rest of his sentence when he felt Kate’s shoulders tense.

She shook her head. “No, I’m ready. Please, I want to see them.”

Leading the way, he directed her to where her parents’ bodies were. He was intimately familiar with the morgue at this hospital. He’d seen enough of the Midtown Strangler’s victims. Knowledge he’d rather not have.

“Are you ready?” Jack repeated, wrapping his arm around Kate and walking her slowly to the elevator.

“How can you ever get ready for something like this?”

“We don’t have to do this now, if you don’t want.” Jack pulled Kate closer and kissed the top of her head. She was shaking. He rubbed her shoulder and she folded into him.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she whispered.

“So am I, sweetheart,” Jack said, thinking Kate looked tinier and more vulnerable than he’d ever seen her. God, he wished they were anywhere but here, but if she had to go through this, he was going to make sure she wasn’t alone. He was going to protect her, even knowing there was nothing he could do to fix this.

The surgeon who had operated on Kate’s parents, the one who told Jack he’d meet them in the hospital morgue, walked up and extended his hand.

“Katherine, I’m Dr. Malek,” he said, clasping her hand. “We spoke on the phone.”

“Yes,” she said flatly, her voice barely a whisper.

Jack took Katherine’s other hand and she gripped it tightly. He reached out to shake the doctor’s hand. “I’m Detective Jack Hale of the APD. I’m with Kate.”

“Glad to meet you, Detective. If you’ll both follow me.”

Kate and Jack followed him into a dimly lit area. Two bodies lay on separate tables, draped in white sheets.

Dr. Malek walked to the tables and, one by one, slipped the sheet down to uncover her parents’ faces.

Kate trembled and squeezed Jack’s hand. For a minute he thought she was going to faint again. Jack put his arm over her shoulders and held her up as they walked toward the tables.

From a distance, lying in peaceful repose the way they were, their bodies so still, it looked to Katherine like they weren’t dead at all but might just be under the covers, sleeping. They had been pried from the wreckage. There had been an explosion, but yet, from where she stood, they were almost untouched. But no less dead.

They had been alive when they were brought in. What had their final thoughts been? Had they called out her name? Had they been in pain? If so, why hadn’t she felt their pain, heard their cries for help?

She inched closer to the bodies, and when she saw them she flinched in horror, her body shaking.

Katherine turned to Jack. “These are not my parents.”

Jack turned back to the doctor, puzzled. “Doctor, has there been some mistake?”

The doctor shook his head. “Look closer. There’s no mistake.”

Jack coaxed Katherine back toward the bodies.

Katherine shook her head. “My mother’s face. That’s not…” Katherine keened loudly. “There’s nothing left of...” She went limp in Jack’s arms.

“Kate,” Jack said firmly, holding her up so she could get a better look.

She reached out hesitantly to touch her mother’s hand and smooth it over the ring her mother wore.

“It’s her wedding ring,” Katherine acknowledged flatly. “Her clothes.” Her hand hovered over her mother’s mangled face that she could not bring herself to touch, and then she kissed her mother’s cool forehead. This was what was left of her parents, once so vital and full of life, their faces once so expressive. She touched her father’s shirt, then his pants, and rubbed his shoes. “It’s him,” Katherine acknowledged.

She would never see her mother smile again or hear her father’s booming laughter. Never hear her mother’s voice or see her lovely face. Never hear them tell her how much they loved her, which they always did. Never be able to tell them how much she treasured them.

An unbidden picture of her mother standing in front of a mirror in the dressing room of their favorite department store, trying on clothes during one of their frequent mother-daughter shopping trips popped into her mind. Her mother looking beautiful, graceful, alive. A fleeting glimpse of her handsome father, sitting in his chair in the den reading the paper, commenting on a particular article, keeping her updated on the news of the day. Then the images were gone. Nothing was left and she was alone. Cold and alone.

“Dr. Malek?” Katherine gulped. “Did they suffer?”

“It was over pretty quickly,” Dr. Malek assured Katherine. “In the end, they didn’t feel anything. I’ll leave you alone now. I’ll be waiting outside when you’re finished.”

Tears slipped down her face as sorrow shook her body uncontrollably. She dropped Jack’s hand and wrapped herself around her mother, laid her head on her mother’s breast and cried.

“I’ll be outside with the doctor,” Jack said, releasing Kate.

“No, stay,” Katherine insisted, tugging at Jack’s hand. “Please.” She didn’t want him to leave her, not for a minute. She couldn’t get through this ordeal without him. It was premature, but she had already imagined introducing Jack to her parents. Under different circumstances, he would have been invited to dinner to meet them. Her mother would have welcomed him openly, warmly. Her father would have scrutinized him and grilled him, but not judged him. This was not how she wanted their first meeting to go.

Jack nodded, bleary-eyed, standing ramrod straight, staring first at Kate and then at her lifeless parents. “I know I never met your parents, but death is part of my world. It’s always a shock and it’s never easy.” He rubbed his now clean-shaven chin. “I wish I knew the right thing to say to you.”

Kate looked up at Jack. “Your beard is gone. When did you have time to shave?”

Jack smiled ruefully. “The minute I got home.” They shouldn’t be talking about such mundane things as beards, he knew, but he guessed Kate didn’t want to face reality yet. “What do you think?”

“I can see you now,” Katherine said softly. “What will happen next?” she wondered aloud, looking up at Jack and away from her parents. “I mean, where will they go?”